Taranaki Teenager Has Evangelism Dream!

It was about 6:30am. I dreamt I’d just bought some evangelism resources and with them was a small pamphlet.

The pamphlet told me the truth about the state of evangelism in New Zealand.

As I began reading it I became more and more discouraged.

I read that many years ago there were many youth workers who did evangelism but as time went on, there were fewer and fewer.

Eventually only one young person was out there evangelising.

I also read that the churches in my area were the only ones attempting to train young people for evangelism.

Sales of true gospel tracts had dissipated so far, that the ship which used to transport evangelism resources had gone rusty and was up on dry land. Now there was no way of getting further resources. In my dream I could see the ship.

As I read the pamphlet, I found myself in a state of drifting into a state of evangelism paralysis.

A great grey cloud engulfed me. I felt desperately lonely and discouraged, as though I was the only one in the whole world active in evangelism.

Would all these people who had not heard the gospel really be going to hell? Surely not!?

So discouraged, I eventually came to the place where I decided to give up doing evangelism. I convinced myself that my my time would be better spent on other things, like good works.

I also became convinced that hell was not a real place. Yet, at the same time, I had this nagging feeling that by not going into the world and proclaiming the gospel, I was being disobedient to our Lord.

Would I be judged by God for my disobedience? Surely not!

Surely God would look on the good things I was doing and He’d overlook my withdrawal from evangelism.

My dream ended with the strong thought that all these people who were exhorting us to return to the priority of the church (i.e. to the evangelisation of the world) were simply making noise. They were not from God at all!

This was my dream. When I awoke, I began to process it, and these are the thoughts about it which came to mind.

1. The devil can convince us to evangelise the world is an impossible task. Don’t be intimidated by his negative reports. Joshua wasn’t. With the risen Lord Jesus on our side, who can be against us?

2. The youth are not the only ones with the responsibility for evangelism. Evangelism is the privilege and responsibility of all believers. We just need coaching and tools to know how to do it in a loving and caring way.

3. Just because we can’t see anyone doing evangelism does not mean it’s not going on. There are people around the world obeying the Great Commission, even though the research shows it’s only 2%. How do we win a race when we think we are desperately losing (i.e. when we think there are so many non-Christians to reach with the gospel and so few Christians making themselves available to reach them?) Join the other team? No, we must strive with everything within us, doing everything we can, trusting the commanding officer to honour our efforts.

4. Hell is a real place and real people are going there. It’s God’s job to win them. Ours is to warn them.

5. We don’t want Jesus to be ashamed of us, so let’s make ever effort to obey him with the Great Commission. (Hebrews 9:27)

6. The only way anyone can be justified before God is through Jesus’ death on the cross. Praise God for Christmas!

The dream I had was from the enemy, sent to discourage me from doing evangelism.

I wonder how many others in the Christian community have had thoughts (not necessarily dreams) planted in their minds to discourage them from doing evangelism?

Be encouraged in your evangelism everybody!!! We’re on the winning team. By Lydia Wilson, Inglewood.

I have been reading these evangelism posts for about a year now and this one is a very refreshing though I wonder maybe if it was not from God to reveal the heart of what happens to Christians through the influence of the enemy. My wife and I were called to counsel an unmarried couple last week and thinking O here we go again… The young man was accusative and the woman was seeing evil spirits effecting them so we did a flat cleansing. As we prayed through the rooms an evil spirit came out of the man. He was instantly changed into a loving appreciative person saying “It was in me, it was in me!” He knew it was evil and it had left. I asked him if he knew what it was to be born again and he replied, “That’s what I feel like, like I’m a whole new person!” Well good news indeed. I had no idea at the time but he later confessed this thing in him had been pulling on his arms trying to get him to punch me. Reflecting, one might consider this a the way Jesus brought the good news and setting captives free. I did not need to tell this spirit to leave – I was not aware it was even there. As the scriptures say we fight not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers. Kindest regards, Ps Mike Oliver.

# 20 December 2011 at 4:58 pm

Carl says:

Thanks fro your encouragement Lydia

I try to take a few minutes each day to pray for one of the multitude of “unreached” poeple groups around the world to hear the gospel (I also deliberately venture out into the world on my doorstep each week to overtly practice what I pray!). I have been doing this for several months (the other longer) but lately I have been feeling quite overwhelmed by the size of the task remaining.
But God gave me a great passage for putting it all in perspective:

“Abraham did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. Rom 4:20-21

So what has God promised that our faith can take strength from so that we don’t stop sewing the seed?

“I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” Matt 16:18

God will because he promised he will and because he is powerful enough as well as willing to do it

How To Mobilise 100% Of The People In Your Church For Evangelism

Mobilising a whole church is a choice, and does not happen by chance. Make the choice. Watch a 41 minute video
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Julian

"I have been an evangelist for nearly 30 years. I have travelled to many countries, motivating and equipping the Church to evangelise.

Research shows that only 2% of the Church in the West regularly proclaim or spread the gospel. Yet, in the early church, everyone (with rare exceptions) was actively engaged in evangelism. We want to reverse this awful statistic. If you want to be part of the solution, the first place to start is by attending "THE 12 LOST TRUTHS' conference. For a brief overview of the purpose of these conferences and how all the resources in this ministry fit together, Click here

Below is a video of Ian and Lenda Pimm, who are the ministers at a thriving Presbyterian church in the rural NZ town of Waipukurau. Contact details: pimm.ian@xtra.co.nz; phone 64 6 858 8036

A "12 LOST TRUTHS" conference was held in Tokoroa, NZ. The chairperson of the Christian leader's association in this town is Brian Haggar. He is also the senior pastor of the Tokoroa Elim church. The video below is what Brian had to say about the conference.

To host a conference in your city, town, or country, email Julian@esisite.com